They’ve served in war-ravaged countries around the world, but Navy crews were warned this week to stay clear of downtown San Pedro while they were in port.

Maps issued by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were handed to ship crew members after the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Monday warning them of areas that could be dangerous to visit. The Lincoln is one of four ships participating in the weeklong Navy Week event, with public ship tours offered through the weekend.

On the maps given to crew members at shoreside, several areas – including San Pedro’s downtown shopping district – were outlined in red and identified as “high drug use/distribution area.”

The back of the map, meanwhile, extols all the amenities that can be found in downtown Long Beach.

Community boosters were furious when information about the maps leaked out, with a Facebook thread quickly filling up with angry, frustrated comments.

“I was pretty shocked,” said Andrew Silber, owner of the Whale and Ale Pub in downtown, when a crew member showed him the map Monday night.

“I didn’t know anyone was trying to paint such a dark picture of San Pedro,” Silber said.

The NCIS could not be reached for comment.

“Everybody was surprised. We didn’t know anything about it,” said Camilla Townsend, CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.

The appearance of the cautionary maps frustrated those who have been trying to promote a long-running push to spruce up San Pedro’s image and attract out-of-town tourists.

“The Navy is handing them out to sailors as they leave the ship, so they’re walking off with papers that say `Don’t go into downtown San Pedro’ and we’re saying `Welcome to San Pedro,”‘ said Katherine Gray, a downtown shop owner who several months ago launched the San Pedro Visitors and Convention Bureau.

She has set up a canteen for the sailors in the Croatian Cultural Center at Pacific Avenue and Seventh Street, along the perimeter of the downtown, offering refreshments and a place to congregate while they’re in town.

“When we found out about this we started working to overcome it,” her husband, Scott Gray, said Wednesday. “We have people out at the Abraham Lincoln handing out materials with information on our restaurants.”

Angry Facebook comments questioned why the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District or the Port of Los Angeles weren’t more proactive in coordinating some advance tourist information for the visiting sailors.

“We really need to pull together better as a team,” Silber said.

It’s not the first time a tourist opportunity has slipped through San Pedro’s grasp.

In years past, some of the cruise lines have also warned their passengers to steer clear of downtown San Pedro.

When the Star Princess cruise ship made an unexpected stop at the Port of Los Angeles in May 2009 due to a swine flu scare, cruise line officials made hasty arrangements to shuttle the day-trippers – across the Vincent Thomas Bridge and into Long Beach.

Silber’s initial post about the Navy Week crew map, posted on the Rediscover San Pedro Facebook group site, said, “We seem to have missed the ball one more time. Hope the Navy has a good time in Long Beach.”

Scott Gray said downtown San Pedro is safe and has “three active police forces: the LAPD, Port Police and the PBID’s (Property Owners’ Business Improvement District) private security.”

It was not clear what the original source was for the NCIS maps, but the Navy is known to scout out areas before crews dock as a way to protect enlisted personnel from possible danger while in port.

“Obviously some bad information got out there and there were rolling consequences from that,” Scott Gray said. “I understand there is no shuttle bus for sailors getting off the Abraham Lincoln line to go into downtown. People are very upset about it.”

Even local residents, however, have long complained about safety in and around the downtown and waterfront areas where neighborhoods around the Rancho San Pedro public housing development recently were the target of a massive, overnight gang and drug sweep.

Scott Gray said the Navy seemed to be working with local officials to help counteract some of the fallout from the circulated maps.

The chamber, Townsend said, has asked the Navy not to give the maps out to crew members of two additional ships – the USS Princeton and the USS Chafee – due to arrive for Navy Week today.

Silber said that in spite of the map, some crew members have visited the downtown, along with the throngs of civilian visitors Navy Week is also attracting to San Pedro.

An open air trolley carrying visitors through the downtown on Wednesday “was full of people,” said Linda Alexander, who works in the PBID office on Seventh Street.

Has the map deterred some business?

“That’s one of those things that’s impossible to say,” Silber said. “We’ve been very busy with Navy Week so that’s a plus. How busy would we have been without (the map)? It’s hard to say.”

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.